WELCOME TO THE CENTER FOR THE INTEGRATION OF RESEARCH, TEACHING AND LEARNING (CIRTL) AT UCLA!

What is the CIRTL Network?

The Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL) is a nation-wide online network of 40+ universities that seek to enhance excellence in undergraduate education through development of a national faculty committed to implementing and advancing evidence-based teaching practices for diverse learners. The goal of CIRTL is to improve the learning of all students at every college and university, and thereby to increase the diversity in fields and the literacy of the nation.

The CIRTL@UCLA program supports the professional and career development of graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and current faculty who are engaged in teaching now, or who are considering academic careers. The collaboration of CIRTL@UCLA and the national network inspires commitment to use effective teaching practices for diverse college students, and to provide current and future faculty the knowledge and tools to do so. The project was funded by the National Science Foundation to support future faculty in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), but has expanded to include graduate students and postdoctoral scholars from ALL disciplines.

Benefits to engaging with CIRTL include:

Be competitive for a broader array of academic jobs

Negotiate for higher salary

Become a more effective teacher

Implement inclusive teaching and actively engage in social justice

Communicate effectively to a broad audience

CIRTL Core Competencies

UCLA has CIRTL programs built on the CIRTL core ideas: Teaching-as-research, learning communities and learning-through-diversity. Our local learning community offers its own robust schedule of courses, programs, events, internships and resources. In addition, all UCLA graduate students and post docs automatically have access to the CIRTL online network and can participate with our CIRTL partners in a national cross-network learning community.

Teaching-As-Research

The professor as change agent

The deliberate and systematic use of research methods to advance teaching and learning practices

CIRTL Scholars have added to community knowledge about teaching and learning. They have designed and implemented a Teaching-as-Research investigation, and defended the findings to CIRTL learning-community peers. The significance of CIRTL Scholar Teaching-as-Research work is established through presentation and/or publication of the findings to all-university, regional, national, or international audiences.